In fact, it's 52.8 percent more expensive than the median cost of living in the U.S. But it's not the most expensive city by a decent margin. Click through to see the top 15 most expensive cities in the U.S., according to the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness's latest cost of living index, for the third quarter of 2017. Note that 100 equals the median cost of living in a U.S. metro region, so any amount above that can be translated to that percentage more than the median cost.

It's been decades since Seattle could be considered a cheap place to live.

And for much of its short life, it's been a boom town with ever-rising costs of living, albeit never more costly than they are today.

In recent history, the city has seen only one significant decline in those costs -- during the Great Recession. Since then, everything from housing prices to the cost of a loaf of bread has been on the rise, the steep rise.

This is how we arrive at the end of January 2018 to begin reckoning with a cost of living that is even less bearable than it was one foul year ago.

In years past, this analysis started with the intent of comparing the cost of living in Seattle to its $15-per-hour minimum wage. But each year, the numbers have demonstrated that living in Seattle (or, for that matter, much of the metro area) on $15 an hour is a hell of a challenge.

So, for the third annual installment, we'll set that aside and simply run the numbers.

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Let's start with the news that Seattle has risen to sixth place on the list of the most expensive places to live, according to figures from the Arlington, Virginia-based Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC).

The Seattle metro area was given the composite index of 152.8 for the third quarter of 2017, meaning it's 52.8 percent more expensive to live here than the median cost of living in the U.S.

Certainly, we fared better than New York's Manhattan borough, with a score of 242.9, or San Francisco, with a score of 191.8.

Those numbers are helpful for tracking changes (Seattle, for instance, moved up two spots from its score of 147.5 in 2016) or for comparisons, but they don't actually reveal the true cost of living.

CREC's latest index did include costs for a number of items in the Seattle market, including grocery items, energy, doctors, dentists and more. But tallying those things is a bit clumsy, so we'll turn back to Numbeo.com to run some comparisons.

To start out, the cost of living estimator was set up this way: one person in the household who eats out at lunch or dinner 5 percent of the time and only at inexpensive restaurants, rarely drinks coffee away from home, rarely drinks alcohol, doesn't smoke, uses only public transit, doesn't own a car, never takes a vacation, doesn't belong to a gym or other sports club and rarely buys clothing.

This will be the bare bones, no-frills cost of living. We'll adjust later for a lifestyle that is more realistic.

The grand total monthly cost came to $814.58. Now for the fun part: rent.

Rents (and real estate prices) in Seattle have been on an unstoppable upward trend since 2011. For December 2017, Zillow put the median one-bedroom apartment rent for the Seattle metro area at $1,724. We chose a one-bedroom because the median rent for studios was actually higher.

Add that to the monthly costs calculated by Numbeo and we get $2,539 per month, or $30,463 per year. And of course, since that's what we'll need to spend, that's after taxes. The effective tax rate around that income level should wind up around 9.24 percent, so we'll need a gross annual salary of $33,278 (if you worked full-time, that would be about $15.90 per hour, in case you were wondering).

Keep in mind, that income assumes no debt, no medical expenses, no savings, only a tiny sliver for phone service, and about $156 per year for clothing. And never mind the fact that our theoretical lifestyle won't include any kind of vacation or recreation that costs money.

Once more, these calculations reflect the fact that the poorest among us are forced to forego many of the things that make life in the Seattle area so wonderful. The amazing food, the hiking and camping, the fishing, boating and even regional trips are virtually nonexistent for our bare-bones resident.

Going back to the Numbeo calculator, we changed things to allow for a bit more eating and drinking out, some travel (one week per year), a gym membership and a car (with a $142/month payment and only one tank of fuel each month).

We also made it a household of two people in the interest of sharing some of the burden.

With those changes in place, the monthly total, before rent, is $2,457.92. Assuming our residents are still frugally minded, we'll let them share the one-bedroom apartment, bringing the total monthly cost to $4,181.92, or $50,183 per year.

Assuming a tax rate that ends up around 10 percent, those two will need to earn about $55,201 a year before taxes.

Mind you, that's still $27,600 each, but it certainly shows the value of teaming up to make that income stretch further.

If we kept the same standards but for just one person, they would need to earn about $41,000 per year. Again, neither of these calculations allow for debt payments, medical bills or even insurance, or savings.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said last year that an income of $50,400 per year or less in the Seattle area is considered low-income. Our frugal friends would be in the very low-income bracket for certain.

Now, as readers will no doubt point out in emails and comments, people come up with creative ways to make a go of it in any city, regardless of how expensive it is. Seattle is no exception, but those creative opportunities are getting harder to find as the city continues to be transformed by a booming economy that doesn't benefit everyone equally.